Caribbean Elections in the Age of Cambridge Analytica: SCL, Cambridge Analytica’s Caribbean History

Neither Grenada nor Antigua was named among the several Caribbean territories where Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) and Cambridge Analytica (CA) have boasted about influencing regime change in the over two decades have been engaging in their heralded pre-election ‘mind-bending’ exercises across the region.

These revelations -- by well-placed persons definitely in the know -- clearly show that SCL has been active in the Caribbean for longer than earlier thought.

In the worldwide back-to-back and wall-to-wall media coverage of the SCL and CA sagas in the USA and the UK, several revelations emerged about their long historical role in Caribbean elections.

According to Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the US and the Organization of American States Sir Ronald Sanders: “SCL is the prime suspect as the organization hired to carry out the objectives of external agencies. It has operated secretly in the Caribbean for many years.”

Sanders, who also writes a weekly column on regional issues published across the Caribbean, recently quoted the US-based Caribbean news portal, Caribbean News Now, which has also documented SCL’s earlier involvements in Caribbean elections.

Sanders, in a widely-published post-election article entitled ‘External Interference in Caribbean Elections is Real’, offered the following revelations of SCL and CA’s earlier involvements in Caribbean elections:

“In the 2009 election in Dominica, it was hired to manage the opposition United Workers Party (UWP) campaign. Someone other than the UWP paid the US$1.5 million invoice from SCL.

“In Saint Lucia in 2011, SCL offered to help run the government’s re-election campaign for free, in return for $1.9 million projects after the government was re-elected.

“In St Kitts-Nevis, SCL managed the successful campaign of Saint Kitts and Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP)… The British Newspaper, the Daily Mail, also published a story on March 22 (2018), revealing an SLC sting operation against the then Leader of the Opposition on behalf of the SKNLP.

“In 2004/5, SCL was also active in St Vincent and the Grenadines against Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, and they returned in 2009 to help torpedo a referendum his government called on constitutional reform.

“SCL was also evident in Trinidad and Tobago, acting for persons in the United National Congress (UNC).

“And SCL was also involved in the 2013 general elections in Barbados, where it claims to have worked for the Democratic Labour Party (DLP).”

Sanders also pointed out that “Alexander Nix, the now-suspended Chief Executive of SLC’s, subsidiary CA, was known to operate in the Caribbean.”

These revelations -- by well-placed persons definitely in the know -- clearly show that SCL has been active in the Caribbean for longer than earlier thought.

What these revelations also make clear is that never mind they failed more than succeeded to effect Regime Change in the Caribbean, SCL, and CA – and the others in their league and realm – have certainly effected change in the way right-wing and anti-progressive forces pursue changes of government.

The same advocates of Westminster Democracy now hypocritically justify external intervention and use of advanced Information Technology, even economic sabotage and military intervention to change governments they do not like.